


Ruth

by Pfain Ryder (Cat_Moon)



Category: Quantum Leap
Genre: F/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-07-23
Updated: 2019-07-23
Packaged: 2020-07-12 07:27:02
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,019
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/19942420
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Cat_Moon/pseuds/Pfain%20Ryder
Summary: The story of how Al met his third wife, Ruth.





	Ruth

The letters started shortly after I shipped out to 'Nam for the second tour.

She had a way with words, and an imagination that could make a sailor blush (and did). She said keeping the boys' spirit's high was an important service, so she'd chosen one -- I owed my fortune to the luck of the draw -- and began doing her part for her country.

At first I thought it was some kind of joke, although the only trickster I knew who was that devious was on board the Carrier with me. Then I came to understand her unique methods, and her letters were a source of entertainment for all of us. I looked forward to them more as time went on. Beth's letters were...coolly impersonal by then, unemotional accounts of events happening stateside and friendly concern. She'd been more than a little angry with me for volunteering for another tour. By contrast, my mystery lady's love notes gave a guy a distraction. She helped keep my spirits up when I was worrying about my marriage.

Her name was Ruth.

I never wanted to meet her; to do so would have spoiled the mystery. In fact, by the time I'd come home from 'Nam I'd all but forgotten all about her...I had other things on my mind by then.

Beth's leaving me left a gaping hole inside me, there was no room for anything in my life except pain. Looking back, most of those long months of convalescence are a blur.

Including my vacation to Las Vegas, subsequent weekend affair and quicky marriage. The marriage lasted just long enough for a honeymoon and the hangover to wear off. In those days I was rarely sober long enough to get a hangover, but I managed. We parted on indifferent terms, and to this day I have trouble remembering her name. After that I wandered through life aimlessly for awhile, licking my wounds, drowning my sorrows, and generally making life miserable for those around me.

It was kind of like fate. An old friend looked me up one day, someone I'd served on the ship with. We talked old times over lunch, and then he pulled out a letter. From Ruth. Seems it had gotten mixed up with his stuff...or so he said, I always wondered if had been a little more than just accident. Like I said, her letters were a bright spot in our dreary existence.

So my mind, freed from other pursuits, turned to Ruth. I began wondering, again, what kind of person she was. What she looked like. Since I had nothing else to do at the time, I decided to find out. So I tracked her down.

Standing there on the steps of her house like a fool, I had a sense of deja vu -- or maybe it just reminded me of some movie or other. I'd had a belt to fortify myself before leaving home, so I rang the doorbell with only minimum hesitation.

Her mother answered the door, and ushered me in. I explained who I was and why I'd come, about the letters she'd brightened my days with... leaving out the part about the contents of course. There were a Jewish family, loud and warm and welcoming. I think I fell in love with them even before Ruth came home.

Finally, I was face to face with the women I'd fantasized about for years. She blushed, stammered, shook my hand. She had long dark hair, and intense, laughing eyes. She wasn't a thing like the dream images of the sexy seductress. She was more down to earth, more real. I was enchanted. We were married a month later.

Those five years were the happiest of my life. Yes, even more so than when I was married to Beth. In those days I was hardly ever home. When I was, there were the fights. About the time I spend at the base with my friends, about my volunteering for every dangerous mission that came along, about starting a family. The whole bit.

With Ruth it wasn't like that. I was in the space program by then, and fairly settled -- as settled as I've ever been, anyway. I didn't just marry her, I married her whole family, god love them. They were great, made me feel like I really belonged. A unique experience for me. To this day I'm not sure whether it was her or the whole family I'd fallen in love with. Her father taught me how to make wine, and I played football in the street with her brothers. I ate the huge Hungarian feasts her mother cooked every Sunday.

Then another jolt of deja vu hit, but I knew where this one came from. One day I found myself in a hospital, holding onto Ruth's hand as she drifted away from me despite my pleading with her to stay. I didn't pray that time. I knew it wouldn't have mattered.

I drifted away from the family after that, too painful. For all of us. Went my own way, alone again. Started drinking heavily again. No one ever knew how much self pity lived inside Mr. Good Time Charlie. Sometimes, when I was very lucky, neither did I. But I never forgot my sweet Ruth.

That should have been the end of the story, with a tagged on ending everyone could shake their heads and mutter "shame" about. But it wasn't because shortly after that, I met Sam Beckett. The man with more stubbornness inside him than anyone I've ever met. He needed it, to deal with me. And deal with me he did, I didn't stand a chance. I think by then I was too tired to fight him. So he dried me out, saved my butt, became my best friend.

And the rest, as they say, is history. Several of them, in fact. But no matter how many lifetimes I live, whatever time brings, I'll never forget Ruth and the special joy she and her family brought to my life.

I'll never forget dear Ruthie.

**1/26/95**


End file.
